NEW ORLEANS -- An entire Louisiana neighborhood and a police officer with special skills helped identify Bernell Pollard and his cousin, Jamiron Pollard, in a recent case of a child's death.

Working from information provided by witnesses, Detective Stephanie Tailon compiled the composite linking the suspects to the crime scene.

Advertisement

Equipped with her trusty computer and her book of foreheads, eyes, noses, lips and chins, Tailon is one of the New Orleans Police Department's most valuable resources when it comes to identifying suspects.

"That's what I do. I open the book. I have numerous pages of foreheads," Tailon said. "When you look through, don't worry about hair, because I can add or take off hair, and don't worry about complexion, because we're going to get to skin tone last. Look at the foreheads and see which ones fit the shape of the person you saw. On top of that, I don't want you to think about it. I want you to feel it."

She said it comes as a big surprise when witnesses are asked to forget what they think they know.

"When you start trying to rationalize, that's when you end up with something that's not right," Tailon said. "When you have a gut feeling, go with it."

She said more often than not, gut feelings are dead on -- like in the search for suspects in the case of slain 2-year-old Jeremy Galmon, in Central City. In that case, there are numerous witnesses.

"The witnesses, if you put up all the witnesses' composites, they'd be exactly the same," she said. "The only difference is one person says, 'I think he has hair on the face, but I'm not sure,' and the other person says, 'Yeah, I think he had hair,' so I put hair on."

Tailon said some cases are personally heartbreaking, and for her, Galmon's was one of them.

"It hits home with that," Tailon said. "This kid went out to have a good time one day and was just sitting in the car with his grandmother and was shot and killed for no reason."

As of Thursday night, Tailon said she has put together 204 composites, and 59 suspects have been identified. In addition to her work with the NOPD, Tailon has also been called upon to do work for federal agencies.